Chris Orr RA is an English artist and printmaker who has exhibited worldwide and published over 400 limited edition prints in lithography, etching and silkscreen. His work is best described in his own words "During my thirty nine years as an artist I have been put in various pigeon-holes, such as 'quintessential English' or a 'latter-day Hogarth'. But are these epithets reasonable? My pictures are composed of well-mixed metaphors, references, allusions jokes and descriptions. Does 'Chris Orr-like' refer to a typically English muddle? The tradition of graphic eccentricity (Heath Robinson, Donald McGill, Steve Bell et al.) is fair enough, I am happy to acknowledge many influences in this area."

(b. 1943)

Chris Orr RA.

A Student at the Royal College of Art 1964-1967 he subsequently taught in many Art Schools. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1995 and made Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art 1998-2008. He was awarded an MBE and made Professor Emeritus in 2008. As Treasurer of the Royal Academy 2014-18, he was involved in the Burlington project.

Chris Orr has had numerous exhibitions throughout the world which include: ‘The Complete Chris Orr’ (touring show), 1976; ‘Many Mansions’ (touring show), 1990; Six Royal Academicians in China’, shown in Beijing, Shanghai, and London, 2005; ‘LithORRgraphy’, Royal Academy, Fine Rooms 2012. ‘The Miserable Lives of Fabulous Artists’ Royal Academy Keeper’s House 2018. He has had regular solo shows with the Jill George Gallery and the Brook Gallery. He exhibits annually at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the London Original Print Fair.

Besides being with numerous private and corporate collectors his work is to be found in public institutions including The Arts Council of England, The British Council, The British Museum, The Government Art Collection, The Palace of Westminster Collection, The Ruskin Library at Lancaster University, The Queens Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Science Museum, Tate Britain, and The Victoria and Albert Museum.

Chris Orr is a narrative artist whose work ranges across a variety of subjects and ideas. He has a fascination with the physical and social nature of the modern city. His investigations lead him all over the place from London to Shanghai via New York, and back through Naples. He paints and draws on location as well as in the studio. His work is packed with observed detail and incidents. He engages with contemporary life and a sense of how the past has shaped us. He has been described as a social surrealist. What may start as a mundane observation can blossom into something very different. Those who collect his work, and there are many, talk of a life-long engagement with the world contained within his pictures.

Chris started making prints in his twenties and discovered the power of the multiple to communicate. A medium like etching consolidated his drawing. Lithography was a process that offered wonderful new freedoms. Recently, silkscreen and engraving have begun to play a big part. Printmaking is a way of taking his thoughts into a published public domain. The relationship between printmaking and books is very strong. The print is like a page and in much of his printed output, there is a hidden text. He invites people to 'read' his work as well as to look at it.

https://www.chrisorr-ra.com/about